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Getting to school

Mazbeth: No she is not Miss Knight and yes, she apologises for, you are perfectly correct in your recollection for it was Miss Knights and not Woods as she wrongly recalled.
With the passage of thirty plus years and two other schools, one in Brum and the other here on the South Coast she cannot now recall the form she had responsibility for. She does add that you may recall a biology teacher, with the surname Murphy, who had been head girl at the school at her earlier time. Unless of course she is having another senior recollection.
Feel free if you so wish to drop me a p.m. for further 'ramblings' of others during her time and save all this posting blocking the site.
Will.
 
I think my ex-wife must hold some sort of record for the distance she had to walk to school.Her dad was too mean to give her bus fare or dinner money so she had to walk there and back twice a day.Where from and to,I hear you say.She had to do this walk from Burbury Street to St.John Wall school at the far end of Oxhill Road in Handsworth.Quite a fair distance for a girl and not a very big one at that.
 
Kegs

Like lots of others the journey to school suddenly became much more interesting once I moved on to KEGS in Aston. I was living then in Great Barr so the journey was almost five miles, catching the 52 bus to six ways and then the 40a if I was late or walking down past the library and straight on to the school. This was usually the preferred option since it saved on the bus money which meant it could be spent on other things, like the iced buns that Chaz and his wife used to sell from the Tuck Shop, which seemed to me to be part of their house.
The journey itself was OK as long as the weather behaved itself but when we had the severe winter in '63 it was a nightmare for quite a while since we were expected to walk in. Mind you I used to walk with my dad who was working at Newmans in Hospital Street, so his walk was even further. The worst and most exciting weather for a kid was of course the fog. In the early 60's I can remember some incredible pea-soupers and we used to get let out early because there was every chance that we would have to walk home. We often did, usually because it was a faster than waiting for a bus and then sitting on that while it crawled along.
 
Music teacher.

:) Who was your music teacher Peter?. Mine was proffesor Charles [Charlie] Gough who lived at the top of Bevington road. I used to walk from Holte road through Aston park every Saturday morning. One Saturday I found a big stray black dog with very sore feet. I took him home and we advertised in the local paper under lost and found. A short time after his owners turned up on our doorstep over the moon. He had slipped out and got lost. Didn't have a phone in those days, not posh enough. I don't think I have ever seen a dog quite that big. Hence to say I missed my lesson that day. I have still got the music my teacher wrote for me and when I feel I want some time alone I disappear and play my piano. [Not that good though] I only took it up again three years ago. TTFN. Jean.:smile2:
 
l .o. x t. street (bazz m)

BazzM said:
Getting to school for me couldn,t have been easier. I went to Loxton St. School, and fortunately for me I lived in a block of flats ( Queens Tower ) right over the road ( Duddeston Manor Rd. ) from it so all I had to do each day was cross the road and walk through the bomb- peck by the side of the school and I was there. Very handy.
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:pwhat you reckon bazz,as i just wipe me nose on me sleeve
i nevver made it ta placeis kegs and eggs.
i like you adnt to walk to far cuz i lived in crommwell st
like kandor at one time she thinks?
i like the (eric gibson )story very good.
i remember the tokens for t bus,
sounds as if traveling has always been in
your blood (pomgolien.)
happy days i hated school but wish i,d done
better,made sure my kids have done well.
(only a bit of fun guys i envy you all for doing well)
(bet you passed this place a few times pom?)
 
Hello Derek,
Plenty of the rest of us used to do the same and were members of the stiff arm brigade; nothing unusual was it we were happy kids didn't matter that hankies were for special occasions. I was born in new john st west in a three room house, living room, bedroom and an attic, for me and my sister. It was in a yard at the back of number 23, six families in our court, sharing a 'brewus,' and two toilets. Happy days, especially at school, I went to Elkington Street next to Miller Street bus station.
Like so many other kids, we were 'slum cleared' when I was ten, went to Kingshurst, which our family hated so ended up in Great Barr living with my Grandparents.
My dad was much like yourself in wanting to make sure that his kids got the best start he could give them, so spent ages with us reading, writing and playing number games. Bloody good teachers too at Elkington Street, so many of my class managed to do well and we felt lucky to get the chance that we were offered when we passed the eleven plus.
So although I hated my first few years at KEGS in the end it turned out well; it never made me a snob, made me forget where my roots were, or more importantly how education helped me to have choices in life. I ended up becoming a teacher, trying to give other kids the same chances I had and retired as a head last year.
My Aunt sometimes used to bring us to the shops where the flyover is near Cromwell St, glad to see the school was still standing last time I went past about six months ago. I did a teaching practice there in the 60's when training, doesn't seem that long ago really.
 
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Hello Jean,

The only music teacher I had was the one at school, who was Mr Cooke, sadly I never really got on with him or with music for that matter. He told me that I was too useless to be able to read music and he wasn't far wrong there. As I've got older it's a talent that I've often wished I had and I've always been envious of anyone who has the skill to be able to play an instrument.
We often used to go into Aston Park to eat our lunch from school but I never went there on a Saturday because I lived in Great Barr then, else who knows we may even have bumped into each other. Glad to hear that you've taken up playing again it would have been a shame to waste all those hours of practice.
 
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Music. It was thanks to two of my grandchilder

:) Peter. It is thanks to two of my grandchildren who encouraged [bullied] me into taking it up again. Jess is grade 5 piano and plays the drums. Anthony is also studying for grade 5 guitar. It didn't take long to get it back but I am much slower learning a new peice. Some of my old music is held together with celotape. Since being on this site I find it a wrench to go and practice. I went to Manor Park girls school not far from King Edwards boys. TTFN. Jean. :)
 
Peter brackley

hello peter,
well done nothing but admiration for you,
for doing so well in life.
we finished up in the south Yardley area
there were more open fields there then,
so i did,nt miss living in nechells,well not as much
as now that is,finding this site and reading
so many stories and seeing pictures of where you
used to live.
but hey life goes on i,ve just paid £1.14.9 for a litre of
diesel,ain,t life a bitch, i,ve two lovely grandchildren
and more to come i hope,my youngest son flew to Cuba this
morning has a good job in the area we live in,
and my eldest son,s an area manager with one of the top banks,
we gave them a leg up so i,ve nothing to be ashamed of.
take care mate regards dereklcg
 
Hi Peter,
Have just joined this site so I am a little behind with the news.
I lived at 75 Hawthorn Rd and I to went to Dulwich Rd infants school and Hawthorn Rd junior school until the family moved to Streetly,Sutton Coldfield when Iwas about 8 years of age (1954/55).
One of my first recolections is clutching the railings of Dulwich Rd infants school howling my head off and watching my Mother walk up the hill on my first day. I seem to remember that we all had to lie down for an afternoon sleep and at home time you could choose between a chocolate biscuit or a packet of crisps. As tiny tots we thought nothing of walking home by ourself's.
Hawthorn Rd juniors was perhaps 100 yds from our house so I seem to have had it cushy compared to the rest of you.
Mike Bond.
 
I lived at no 23 Watney Grove opposite the College Arms Pub and my Schools were Twickenham Road Junior and Infants and Perry Common Comprehensive.

Mom used to take me until I was 7 or 8 but then went on my own and crossed College Road at the zebra crossing with the crossing lady. Left Perry Common Comprehensive in 1976 and remember that I used to come home at lunch time and sit and watch Pebble Mill at One for half an hour then rush back to school.

Kids wouldn't do it these days they would expect a lift !.
 
We lived in The Broadway, Perry Barr, opposite Wenlock Road, and I went to Canterbury Cross Primary no more than 10 minutes walk away. My mom took me to school and collected me until I was about 9, when it became something of an embarrassment to me. Nothing to do with fear of paedophiles in those happy, sensible days: rather, she was scared stiff of me crossing roads on my own (even though there were hardly any cars then). The first day she let me walk to school on my own was a triumph and a relief for me, but when I walked home at lunch-time she was waiting for me at the corner of Stoneleigh Road and The Broadway, 'to make sure I got across all right'. Right up to the end of her long life she was forever warning me to 'look out for the horse-road'...

Moms, eh? Bless her...

Big Gee
 
Hello Mike,
Glad to hear from someone who knew Hawthorn roead well, we used to go from Aston to the playing fields in Hawthorn road for games, alternatively we would use the old trinity road games field near the Villa ground. Sadly that's long since gone I expect; I drove through there on Tuesday having come from Witton cemetery to keep an eye on the family graves, gets harder to do as time passes, living almost 200 miles away.
Glad to hear that you're enjoying the site, I tend to get on in bursts and then forget to go on for a while, it works out quite well for me that way since over time lots more has been added.
 
Hello Zak 14. My best friends at school was a girl called June Roberts who lived in Watney Grove, but she went to Dulwich Road School. Dis you know her? Miriam.
 
I was on the other side of the city and walked about a mile to the infants and juniors at Severne Rd. I attended Pitmaston Secondary Modern Seniors and that was a walk of about two and a half miles. I went home for lunch so I walkeed about ten miles a day. We used to walk in small groups talking and laughing every day.
 
Al Banner said:
Hello Zak 14. My best friends at school was a girl called June Roberts who lived in Watney Grove, but she went to Dulwich Road School. Dis you know her? Miriam.
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Hi Miriam,

I was born in Watney Grove in 1959 and left home in 1984, In those days even as kids we knew the names of all our neighbours but I don't remember any with the surname Roberts sorry.
 
Zak 14 do you remember a Jill Taplin who is round about your age and attended Perry Common?. She had a friend by the name of Liz Fisher?. Jean.
 
Hello Zak 14. Thank you for your reply. She would be born in 1933/34 so must surely have left the grove when you were born. Wish I could get in touch with her. Miriam.
 
Hi to Peter Brackley,
Sorry for the delay Peter, am just at the end of a tour of duty Off Shore and there isn't a great deal of spare time out here.
Very kind of you to reply to my little ramble about school and Hawthorn Road, I have to use I.T. a lot at work but when I get home I never touch it, I have to check my e-mails by jumping onto my Son-In-Laws computer once in a while.
As I said the family moved to Sutton when I was about 8 years of age but I can remember walking a few yards from my home in Hawthorn Road to the Aston Old Edwardians rugby ground every saturday afternoon to watch the games. Later in life when I played for Sutton Coldfield it was a strange experience actually playing on those pitches, you were always assured of a warm welcome at those games in more ways than one.
It was interesting to read that you entered Teaching to give other children the same chance that you had. I was alate developer when it came to book work and therefore did not pass the 11+. I always seem to remember that my Teachers were all mature men from the forces or industry who had experience of life and had strong characters
who controlled and guided the class with these attributes. The cane was used but only when all else had failed.Many Teachers of to-day seem to have gone from school to university and back to a school environment without gaining experience of life outside teaching.
Even now that I am approaching retirement age I very often think back to the advice those Teachers gave me--it helped shape my approach to all things in life. You must have done the same thing Peter with numerous boys, the only trouble is in many cases you never saw the final outcome.
I seem to have drifted away from the site theme--getting to school, it's just rewarding forn me to read other peoples coments about old Brum.
Best Wishes, Mike Bond.
 
6d per day for bus fare, 3d there and 3d home. I never got that bus, it was 5 pence ha'penny for five Park Drive and a ha'penny book of matches.
Regretted it every day since.
 
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